Thankful ramblings

Some days can be long and stressful and I feel like I'm swimming against the tide.  I've had a couple of those days recently but I'm thankful today was not one of those days!  

I'm thankful for:

• Last night Chris went out with a friend and we had a girls night at the house.  Easy dinner followed by girl time in the kitchen when Julia decided to color at the table while I cleaned up the mess.  Emma had her talker sitting on the table and she said she wanted to color.  It was great to hear because I was at the sink when she said color several times.  I taped a page of paper to the table, gave her a crayon and she scribbled a bit before dropping the crayon.  To this minute I still have NO idea where that crayon is....funny how Emma has a way of hiding things on me.  Then she asked to read a book so Julia read one to us.  It was a fun and easy night.  And Emma initiated all the talking on Evie on her own without any prompting!  That is a big accomplishment.  She then went on to cry for about 2 hours at bedtime which brought me back to Earth.....she keeps us on our toes like that!
• Julia is coming along really well with her reading.  She is reading longer books and learning more and more words.  I'm so proud of all the effort she is putting into learning to read at school and then coming home and looking to read 2 or more books again at bedtime.  I love listening to her read in her little girl voice.  I wish I could bottle that little voice because it sure is music to my soul.  And the cuddling that occurs with the book reading makes my heart hum!
• Julia continues to excel at imaginative play.  I was cleaning the play room today and looking for things she doesn't need anymore but I quickly realized she plays with pretty much everything we have.  She is so creative on pulling things from various places - like animals from the farm, her Barbies, and her play food to create a picnic lunch for the barbies in the woods - and using them together.  I love listening to her play with her friends and learning how they are really put a lot of thought and effort into their play time.  
• Emma's been blinking a lot on one of her CI programs lately so we needed to go in for a "tune up."  Since she doesn't talk yet her school hearing team worked with us on Friday to show her how hitting a button on her iPad that I programmed to say "I hear you" would let us know she hears the sound presented in the sound booth.  She is a quick study and figured it out very quickly.  She also giggled the entire 45 minutes.  You would have thought we were on a roller coaster or the tilt a whirl with all the giggles she had!  I'm glad she didn't consider it work and she was able to give us a pretty good read for an audiogram.  Today she had her real mapping session at the hospital and we brought in her iPad.  She did really well again and used the iPad for a good portion of the testing until she decided she was done and laid her head down on it.  Game over ;-)  We got a really good map for both her right and left sides, which is wonderful since she usually needs two different appointments - one for her right hear then another appointment another week for her left ear - due to her fatigue in the booth.  Her audiogram was similar to the one we got on Friday so I feel very confident that it's a good one.  We kept her same map because she is hearing really well but changed the sensitivity of the programs to see what will work best for her without causing the eye blink.  The program we left on (P3) worked well for the rest of today so we'll continue to monitor her reaction.  I'm constantly in awe of how far Emma is coming in her hearing and cooperation in the sound booth.  I remember the early days when I wanted to cry after each mapping session and now they are going really well.  So proud of my girl!

• We ran into a few of Emma's fans while at the hospital.  It was great catching up with them!  If you have to take a child to the hospital the one she goes to is so personal that it takes a bit of the sting out of it.  How lucky we are to have people go out of their way to come over and get caught up on Emma and give her hugs and ask her questions directly.  Today she used her iPad with the My First AAC app while at the hospital (there is no way I was brining her iPad and Evie!!!!) and said Hello and Goodbye and Nice to Meet You to so many people.  It's the first time she has used that so frequently and intentionally.  I liked it.  Maybe all our work with her is paying off.
• Tonight Emma said Mommy (twice!) on Evie for the first time ever!  She says Daddy, Julia and Finnegan all the time.  Never Mommy.  Tonight at dinner she decided she wanted Mommy to feed her.  And she got just what she wanted since she asked!!!!!!  She said a lot tonight and I took a photo of the screen to capture it because it made me so thankful that she is starting to communicate with us.  There is along road ahead of her/us, but at least we are on that road and making our way down it.  Slow and steady wins the race - I just have to keep reminding myself of that.